For You, o Democracy
Come, I will make the continent indissoluble,I will make the most splendid race the sun ever shone upon,I will make divine magnetic lands,With the love of comrades,With the life-long love of comrades.
I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the rivers of America,and along the shores of the great lakes, and all over the prairies,I will make inseparable cities with their arms about each other’s necks,By the love of comrades,By the manly love of comrades.
For you these from me, O Democracy, to serve you ma femme!For you, for you I am trilling these songs.
Words in this poem
- continent a.
- Serving to restrain or limit; restraining; opposing. [L. continens, -entis, prop., p. pr. of continere to hold together, to repress: cf. F. continent. See Contain.]
- indissoluble a.
- Not dissoluble; not capable of being dissolved, melted, or liquefied; insoluble; as few substances are indissoluble by heat, but many are indissoluble in water. Boyle. [L. indissolubilis: cf. F. indissoluble. See In- not, and Dissoluble, and cf. Indissolvable.]
- femme n.
- A woman. See Feme, n. Femme de chambre. Etym: [F.] A lady's maid; a chambermaid. [F.]
- trilling n.
- One of tree children born at the same birth. Wright. [Cf. G. drilling.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
For You, o Democracy is in the public domain. This text is taken from Leaves of Grass, Project Gutenberg ebook #1322; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walt Whitman, For You, o Democracy, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/for-you-o-democracy.html, id L03864.
Form and metre
For You, o Democracy is 12 lines in 3 stanzas. 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.2 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ---AA indissoluble · upon · lands · comradesA · comradesA
- 2 ---AA america · prairies · necks · comradesA · comradesA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Come, I will make the continent indissoluble, | 13 | ·····/˘˘˘/˘˘˘ |
| I will make the most splendid race the sun ever shone upon, | 15 | ·····/˘···/˘··· |
| I will make divine magnetic lands, | 9 | ···˘/˘/˘· |
| With the love of comrades, | 6 | ····/· |
| With the life-long love of comrades. | 8 | ······/· |
| I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the rivers of America, | 21 | ···˘/˘····˘/··/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| and along the shores of the great lakes, and all over the prairies, | 16 | ·˘/···········/˘ |
| I will make inseparable cities with their arms about each other’s necks, | 19 | ···˘/˘˘˘/˘······/˘· |
| By the love of comrades, | 6 | ····/· |
| By the manly love of comrades. | 8 | ··/˘··/· |
| For you these from me, O Democracy, to serve you ma femme! | 15 | ······˘/˘˘····· |
| For you, for you I am trilling these songs. | 10 | ······/˘·· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.